IU students will receive a seventh game with their football season ticket package in 2006, but will pay about 34 percent more than they did in 2005.\nStudent season football tickets will cost $19 more than last year's $55 because of the addition of a seventh home football game, an increase in the service fee and a $10 T-shirt.\nPete Rhoda, director of athletic media relations, attributed the increase in service fee to the cost of processing delivery. The fee increased $1 from last year. \nThough the athletics department is unable to calculate the number of student season tickets purchased because of the Bursar option during class registration, Rhoda said the athletics department has already sold 66 percent of the 2005 season ticket total. \nT-Shirts\nLike last year, student season ticket holders will receive a voucher for an official "Crimson Crew" T-Shirt. This year, though, they will pay for it. \nLast year, IU Student Association, IU Athletics and T.I.S. footed a portion of the bill for the shirts. Though Rhoda declined to say who is supporting the T-shirt financially, IUSA President Betsy Henke said Adidas and IU Sports Properties -- an arm of IU Athletics -- contributed to the T-shirts.\nThe $10 T-Shirts, designed by Adidas and the athletics department, can be redeemed at the IU Bookstore once students receive their tickets.\n"The Crimson Crew shirts help unify the student section," Rhoda said in a statement.\nStudents will also receive a $10 voucher for a purchase of $20 or more of Adidas apparel.\nThe public can vote on their favorite T-shirt design on www.votehoosier.com, a Web site that used to host the Hoosier IUSA Campaign. Voting ends May 12.\nThe athletics department collaborated with Adidas on the four T-shirt designs and the athletics department decided to allow the public to vote for their favorite design early in April, "in an effort to provide students with opportunity for more input on their gameday experience at Memorial Stadium," Rhoda said.\nAll four designs feature red shirts with the phrase "Coach Hep Got Me" on the back. Three of the four designs display the Adidas, IU, IUSA and SAB logos on the shirt's front. The other reads "Defend the Rock" on top of an overhead photo of Memorial Stadium. \nIU Athletics contacted IUSA and the Student Athletic Board about coordinating the online survey.\n"There seems to be a mutual vision for what the athletics department wants to see and IUSA wants to see in student involvement in athletics this year," Henke said.\nRecently, IUSA has purchased advertisements in the Indiana Daily Student to promote student voting online. In the advertisements, IUSA encourages students to vote for a design for their "FREE" T-shirt. But the $10 cost is included in the season ticket application, available at www.iuhoosiers.com.\n"It's under my impression that they are free," Henke said. "From what I understand, there are other sources that are investing in the T-shirt."
IUSA and IU Athletics\nHenke said IUSA appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with the athletics department. \n"In an effort to bridge the gap between student government and athletics, that was our first step," she said.\nHenke said IUSA is trying to "enhance our relationship across campus."\nShe wants to work with the athletics department on its new budget, especially the reduction of student seats at men's basketball games, the increase in men's basketball ticket prices and the implementation of charged admission for Olympic sports.\nShe said she doesn't think charging admission for sports like soccer and volleyball will affect attendance drastically. \n"If those people are at those events, it's because they want to be there, not because they're free," she said.\nIn the future, her long-term goal is that the athletics department will eliminate parts of its budget that affect students.\nThe first step for that, Henke said, is communication.\n"We really want to come to the table with them and we have," she said, adding the athletics department is very open to ideas. "We see ourselves working with the athletics department, not working against them. That doesn't mean giving up things for students; that means preserving what we have and enhancing it"
